Flames opted for private flu shots to avoid causing a public scene: team doctor

Jamie Komarnicki, Calgary Herald01.11.2013

Calgary Flames team doctor Jim Thorne talks to the media after testifying as a witness during the Health Services preferential access inquiry in Calgary, Alberta on January 11, 2013.Leah Hennel
/ Calgary Herald

Calgarians in line for H1N1 shots at a public health clinic on Oct. 26, 2009 were expecting a long wait.Lorraine Hjalte
/ Calgary Herald

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The Calgary Flames didn’t want to create a big scene or cause security problems by showing up unannounced to the long public lines for H1N1 vaccinations, an inquiry heard Friday.

But getting immunized at an off-site clinic provided exclusively for the hockey players, their families and staff — about 150 people — landed the team in a different type of uproar as they came under fierce criticism they’d been allowed the jump the queue for the 2009 pandemic flu shots.

More than three years later, details of the Flames’ controversial H1N1 vaccines were provided at the province’s Health Services Preferential Access Inquiry.

In late 2009, amid concerns about a global H1N1 pandemic, AHS rolled out the vaccine for Calgarians at four mass clinics for the public.

Dr. Jim Thorne said concern was high in the league that the pandemic could lead to cancelled games.

The NHL team wanted its players immunized, said Thorne, a team doctor, noting that days earlier the Flames had played a game against the Edmonton Oilers in which two players on the rival team had flu-like symptoms.

While the Flames were fit, Thorne suggested their high profiles that had them shaking hands and signing autographs, as well as the locker room culture of a pro hockey team, could expose them to germs and it was best to get “herd immunity” by inoculating all the players.

But Thorne thought it would be a “bad idea” if the hometown team showed up en masse to one of the four Calgary H1N1 clinics, where members of the public waited as long as five hours.

He said he was concerned “people won’t respect their space, that people won’t respect their privacy, that there will be lineup control issues in an already stressed lineup.

“To be in a crowd for five hours, I thought, should take some planning,” he added.

Thorne said he’d floated the idea of the team bringing its own security to the public clinics, but said it was an employee of Alberta Health Services who first suggested the satellite location for the players.

According to Thorne, one of his patients was a public nurse helping distribute the vaccine at one of the four public clinics.

He asked her for suggestions on how the Flames could get the shot.

Thorne testified that the nurse consulted with her supervisor and called him back to suggest the private clinic.

“It was never my intention to ask for a private clinic,” Thorne said, testifying before commissioner John Vertes.

Thorne said he discussed the idea with Flames managers, including CEO Ken King, and confirmed it had been approved by AHS.

Since the vaccine came in large batches which had a short shelf-life, the Flames’ family members were urged to also take part.

A sign-up sheet for the shot was put up in the team’s training room, said Thorne.

About 150 people got immunized in a room at Thorne’s northwest Calgary clinic.

Two off-duty public health nurses volunteered their time to do the immunization. Thorne said he offered some game tickets as a token of appreciation, but they turned them down.

Thorne said he believed province had assured Albertans that they were providing vaccine for everyone, and he was shocked to learn the day after the Flames got their shot that there was a shortage.

He knew right away “this was going to be bad. We weren’t in a lineup, now people can’t get it.

“We didn’t know a shortage was coming. If we knew one was, we certainly wouldn’t have proceeded,” Thorne said.

“In hindsight, we probably should have lined up with our own security and mitigated the crowd issue.”

The paperwork for the shots indicated the team got the vaccination at one of the four mass clinics, but Thorne said that was just because that’s where the vaccine had originated.

The special flu shot line became a public relations mess, and two AHS staff members were later fired.

Energy Minister Ken Hughes, who chaired AHS for three years, including during the H1N1 pandemic scare, said he only found out about the Flames situation after media reports.

He called the appearance of favouritism offensive.

“This was a very serious breach of a standard we were trying to establish in an organization,” Hughes said.

The Calgary MLA who helped worked out the early kinks for the nascent provincial health superboard during his time as board chair, said he has strong views on preferential access: that VIPs “should damn well line up with the rest of us.”

But he stopped short of calling the Flames incident a case of queue-jumping, when asked by reporters following his testimony.

The public inquiry resumes Monday, with further testimony about the NHL teams’ H1N1 shots, along with evidence from former Calgary Health Region CEO, Jack Davis.

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Flames opted for private flu shots to avoid causing a public scene: team doctor

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